


Solidarity

by sunnie0914



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 03:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8430046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunnie0914/pseuds/sunnie0914
Summary: The doctors told them that Aaron’s liver was damaged but would heal given time. Aaron and Robert learned more about the liver in the doctor’s thirty minute visit than they’d ever had in school. Apparently it is the only human organ that can regenerate itself from as little as 25% of the tissue, although it was just functionary compensation. The actual tissue didn’t grow back to its original size. Robert had a Doctor Who joke that Aaron’s doctor didn’t appreciate but Aaron did. Aaron hadn’t lost even close to that amount of his liver to damage but he did need to give it time to regenerate. However it would take about a month. Thus, no alcohol for Aaron for the next thirty days. It was going to be fun, not.





	

Solidarity

 

The doctors told them that Aaron’s liver was damaged but would heal given time. Aaron and Robert learned more about the liver in the doctor’s thirty minute visit than they’d ever had in school. Apparently it is the only human organ that can regenerate itself from as little as 25% of the tissue, although it was just functionary compensation. The actual tissue didn’t grow back to its original size. Robert had a Doctor Who joke that Aaron’s doctor didn’t appreciate but Aaron did. Aaron hadn’t lost even close to that amount of his liver to damage but he did need to give it time to regenerate. However it would take about a month. Thus, no alcohol for Aaron for the next thirty days. Then he’d have to return for a few test to make sure nothing had gone wrong, like a cyst developing. Other than that though, he’d been cleared to leave the hospital.

 

Aaron didn’t think it would be a big deal. At least it wasn’t over the holidays. The first few days back at the Woolpack he spent resting in bed. Robert waited nearly waited on him hand and foot. It was annoying within two hours.

 

“Need anything?” Robert would ask him every two minutes.

 

“Yeah, do you remember that kebab stand we stopped at on our way back from kayaking?” Aaron finally came up with something.

 

“Yeah,” Robert nodded, remembering the place, “You said they were the best kebabs you’d had.”

 

“Exactly and I want them for lunch,” Aaron informed him.

 

“They’re like forty-five minutes away.”

 

“You asked me what I wanted and this is what I want.”

 

“Fine, I’ll be back,” Robert left the room after gathering his phone, wallet and keys.

 

Chas walked in just as he left. She looked back and watching him descend the stairs before looking back at her son. “You don’t really want those kebabs do you?”

 

“It gets me a couple of quiet hours though doesn’t it?” Aaron replied.

 

“Need anything?” Chas asked before bursting into laughter. She shut the door and left him to be. It was a good thing otherwise Aaron would have chucked the closest thing on his night stand at her, which would have been his alarm clock.

 

Aaron settled into the bed with a magazine Adam had brought by the previous day. He’d spent so much time in bed but the doctor only let him out under the promise that Aaron would stick to bedrest for another couple days. This was the last of the bedrest days. Starting tomorrow he’d be able to at least get up and go to work if only to do paperwork and take calls. At least it would get him out of the pub.

 

It was nearly a week after he was let out of the hospital when he was coming back from the scrapyard and sitting down for tea at the bar that he started itching to order a pint. If anyone else had been there pulling them, he might have even gotten away with ordering one. However Chas was there and had set an orange juice in front of him before he could say anything about a drink.

 

Robert joined him a few minutes later. Naturally, he asked for a pint and Chas obliged. She sat it down in front of him. “What?” Robert noticed Aaron’s eyes on him.

 

“Nothing,” Aaron shook his head and looked away.

 

“It’s not nothing. Are you alright, not in any pain?” Robert shape-shifted back into mother-hen mode in an instant.

 

“I’m fine,” Aaron reiterated.

 

Robert sighed but let it go. He’d figure it out later. The pair moved to a table when Liv finally joined them. Robert noticed that Aaron was distracted through all of dinner. At first he was vain enough to think it was him that had Aaron distracted.

 

“It’s really bothering you isn’t it,” Robert stated more than asked Aaron later when they lay in bed.

 

“What?” Aaron didn’t know what Robert was going on about.

 

“The no drinking thing,” Robert said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, “You didn’t miss a single sip I took of my beer.”

 

“Drop it Robert,” Aaron turned on his side to that he wasn’t facing Robert.

 

“But it is, isn’t it?” Robert never seemed to do as Aaron wanted.

 

“I said, leave it,” Aaron started to sound irritated.

 

“Fine,” Robert cuddled up behind Aaron, wrapping an arm around him. Aaron took that ‘Fine’ as Robert was going to let it go. “If you can’t drink then neither will I,” Robert mumbled against the back of his neck, pressing a kiss against the top of his spine.

 

Aaron rolled his eyes. He didn’t believe that for a moment. Robert would forget about the promise by the next evening. Robert proved him wrong though. He subtly made a point of getting orange juice rather than a pint when Chas offered.

 

“Don’t be an idiot Robert,” Aaron said after his mum had walked away, “If you want a pint, then get a pint.”

 

“I meant what I said,” Robert reiterated, “We’ll have our next pints together.”

 

“And if my liver is worse than they thought and I can’t ever drink again?”

 

“Then we’ll be sober together for the rest of our lives,” Robert said it as though it was the simplest thing in the world, “Plus, that would get me out of drinking out of wellie when we’re married and the Dingles try to initiate me into their family.”

 

Aaron gave him a confused look. “You don’t have to drink out of wellie to be a Dingle. You let me see you naked.”

 

“That’s all I had to do? Then why did you?”

 

“Because I’m not about let any of them see me naked.”

 

“Good,” Robert pulled him in for a quick kiss, “And I’m not have another drink unless it is with my fiancé.”

 

“Yeah, fine, do whatever you want,” Aaron wasn’t going to argue with him. It would be so much easier if they didn’t live in pub but would help some for Robert to go through it with him.

 

So they had tea more often in the back away from the bar. Robert quietly asked Chas to move all the booze from the fridge to the pub so there wasn’t any alcohol in the house. Charity put up a fuss but it was only for a few weeks and it wasn’t like she didn’t still have easy access to anything she wanted. Aaron appreciated the gesture.

 

“I’m pretty sure this is the longest I’ve gone without having a pint since I was eighteen,” Aaron stated, well complained, after another week. They were lying in bed, side by side, both staring at the ceiling. “The only other times I went without was when I was in hospital and that was never more than a few days.”

 

“It’s not much longer, then you’ll be right as rain,” Robert assured him.

 

“I know but it was just, I don’t know, part of the routine,” Aaron tried to explain, “I’d sit down at the bar and have a pint and chat with Mum about whatever. We checked in with one another, you know, make sure we’re both alright. Now,” he shrugged, “now I don’t even want to be down there with everyone else drinking.”

 

“Now we know how pregnant women feel,” Robert tried, “And it’s not just alcohol that they can’t have. It’s not soft cheeses, deli meats, coffee or really any caffeine. At least you can still have a brew.”

 

“Not helping,” Aaron sat up and moved his pillow to lean back against the headboard, “I’m not alcoholic. I know what that looks like, my grandfather was one. However, it’s part of who I am. I come here after work, sit down, have a pint, dinner, and talk with Mum. That’s how it’s been for years. I like that routine.”

 

Robert sat up as well. “No one is accusing you of being an alcoholic. You’ve never let alcohol control you. There is nothing wrong with having a pint each night with dinner. I do it too.”

 

“Yeah, but it’s all I can think about now.”

 

“You’re not missing the pint. It’s just a representative. It’s as you said, you miss the routine. You just need to adapt it for the next couple of weeks. Talk to Chas. Get her to take a break at your teatime. Have your chat. I won’t get in the way and keep Liv out of there too if you want.”

 

“Yeah,” Aaron still seemed distracted.

 

“Come on, it’s been two weeks since you’ve been released. Tomorrow you can really get back to work, not just doing paperwork inside,” Robert urged to slide back down and go to sleep.

 

“Yeah,” Aaron repeated and did as Robert said.

 

“Two weeks, you’re already halfway there,” Robert reminded him before kissing him goodnight.

 

Robert was right, of course. Aaron took his idea and got his mum to take her break in the back with him. She brought him back an orange juice and they had an inane chat like usual. It was the first evening that Aaron didn’t sit around thinking about a drink. He and Robert watched a film they found on TV instead.

 

Robert made sure that their weekend was loaded with plans. The weather and leaves were both changing. On Saturday Robert drove them out to the country and they hiked through the trees with the leaves crunching beneath their feet. They huddled together on a large rock with a blanket and a picnic curtesy of Victoria. Then they went to a gym in Hotten. It had a climbing wall that Aaron had going on about, wanting to try it out. He was a nature at it, Robert not so much. His long limbs helped him reach but weren’t a help when he was practically folded over and trying to get to the next set of hand-holds. They both ended up sweaty and went a round in the shower back at the pub. They made sure to lock the door, less Charity walked in on them again. Or worse, have Liv or Chas walk in on them.

 

Sex proved a good distraction for both Robert and Aaron from just about everything, but especially from the fact that they were not drinking. They had a lazy lie-in on Sunday morning. Aaron very nearly convinced Robert that they should just stay in bed all day. Robert had more plans for them though that involve him being a baby giraffe again. An ice skating rink in Hotten had open hours on Sunday afternoons. They took Liv, who was less thrilled at the idea of ice skating with her older brother and his fiancé until they got to the rink and she saw Robert fall on his butt a half a dozen times.

 

Liv and Aaron had it figured out by the time they got around the rink once. Robert, not so much. Aaron skated with him, side-by-side, hold his hand. This helped marginally. Aaron could tell each time Robert started to lose his balance as his grip went from schoolgirl holding hands with her first crush to woman giving birth in 0.003 seconds. He dragged Aaron down with him a few times and Liv made sure she skated by to laugh at the pair of them on the ice.

 

Slowly, Robert got the hang of it so that he was only falling once every few laps. It was about then that Liv started complaining she was hungry. They got some hot coco at the rink to warm up before leaving to find something to eat.

 

The last week of Aaron’s forced sobriety moved by at a snail’s pace. It didn’t help that it was a slow week at work as well. They cleared most everything out of the scrapyard and had little coming in. They made a total of three runs during the week to pick stuff up. Aaron and Adam spent most of the time twiddling their thumbs. The cabin had never been cleaner. They were completely caught up on their paperwork for the first time in ages. They had the monthly report done early. Their darts skills had improved probably at least tenfold.

 

Robert visited each day around lunch time with something for both of them. He stopped by the pub on the way to pick something up from Vic. Neither of them would turn down a free lunch, even though Aaron knew he was only doing it to check on Aaron, which he found both simultaneously irritating and sweet.

 

Aaron’s doctor’s appointment was for Friday afternoon. Robert drove after they’d had lunch with Adam. First they had to wait forever for the doctor to see them, then they took samples of his blood and urine, did an ultrasound of Aaron’s liver and made them wait some more while they looked at the results of the scan.

 

Aaron’s knee bounced at a rapid pace as they sat in the waiting room until Robert rested his hand on it. “What’s taking so long?” Aaron sounded worried. He’d looked at the clock five times in the last three minutes. They’d been sat there for nearly forty-five minutes. The nurse who led them there hadn’t given them any indication how long they’d be waiting, just asking them to wait.

 

“Do you want me to go ask?” Robert motioned to the desk.

 

“No, I want to know whether or not my liver is back to functioning normally or not.”

 

“I’m sure it’s fine. They probably just want to double check, triple check even. It’s not a bad thing,” Robert squeezed his knee, “It’s your health. It’s important.”

 

“Yeah,” Aaron leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, bumping Robert’s hand out of the way. Robert moved his hand to rub Aaron’s back instead. “Why can’t they just let us go home and call us with the results? It’s practically torture making us wait here.”

 

“They probably want us here just in case they need to run some more tests or need more samples. You don’t want to come back in here tomorrow or Monday because they need something else from you,” Robert reassured him.

 

It was another twenty minutes before a nurse came in, “Aaron Dingle?”

 

“Yeah, that’s me,” Aaron stood in an instance, Robert followed, slower.

 

“If you’ll follow me,” the nurse turned and began to walk away, looking back to see if they were following. She led them to another exam room. “The doctor will be in in a few minutes,” the nurse said before closing the door.

 

“Great, more waiting,” Aaron threw himself in the only chair. Robert leaned against the wall next to him with his hand on the back of Aaron’s neck. His thumb rubbed back and forth, just barely skimming the bottom of Aaron’s hairline. “You know when they say in a few minutes, it’s always like thirty.”

 

“Maybe they’ll surprise us,” Robert said optimistically.

 

It was closer to twenty minutes that they had to wait for the doctor to come in. “Sorry for the wait,” The doctor apologized distractedly as he put up Aaron’s scans on the backlight. Aaron sat up straighter and subconsciously reached for Robert’s hand in case it was bad news. “These look good, no cysts developing. You can see here,” the doctor indicated Aaron’s liver, “everything is as it should be. If there was a cyst, it’d show up as a white spot and we’d want to remove it if started causing problems. We’ll want to do another scan in 3 months and again in a year. However, Mr. Dingle, everything looks like it’s healing nicely. You have a clean bill of health again. You can return to your life as usual.”

 

“Thank god,” Aaron breathed. Robert squeezed his hand, beaming.

 

“Any questions?” the doctor asked. Both Robert and Aaron shook their heads. “If you’d like to schedule the scans now, talk to the secretary, otherwise we’ll call in a few months to set up the first one,” the doctor shook both their hands and then left the room to see to more patients.

 

“We waited an hour and a half for a five minute meeting with the doctor,” Aaron complained as they left the building after setting up Aaron’s appointment for a second scan in February.

 

“Worth it though, got your clean bill of health,” Robert reminded him, “Now let’s go back to the pub and get a pint.”

 

“Or four,” Aaron agreed.


End file.
